CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

The image of the iconic genius - Einstein, Marie Curie, Mozart, Shakespeare, Frida Kahlo, da Vinci – with extraordinary creative achievements remains powerful in the popular imagination. Rightly so. As well as transforming our cultures and understanding of the world, they provide us with a compelling vision of human potential. In doing so, they also hint at our own possibilities. But they can also serve to intimidate and make our own creative efforts seem trivial and pedestrian in comparison, as well as ignoring the fact that creativity and innovation are fundamentally social processes.

While we may or may not be the next Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs or JK Rowling, this is simply the wrong measuring stick to use. Rather, the question is: How can we cultivate and maximise our own creativity and innovation in our own lives and in our own particular circumstance? Or, put another way: how can we develop a creative mindset and habits which naturally permeate every aspect of our personal and professional lives, whether it be in the role of scientist, parent, politician, manager, programmer or community activist?

Creativity and Innovation are essentially concerned with linking new or existing knowledge, items or processes in novel ways. Our approach is to help people improve their creativity and capacity for innovation by:

- Using the Predictive Processing framework, which is at the forefront of modern neuro-scientific understanding of the brain, we examine how the brain perceives and processes the past, present and future

- Introducing quick and easy methods to help the brain actively seek out the New and Different rather than the Old and the Same

- Learning techniques for entering and remaining in more fluid creative, generative and perspective shifting spaces

- Enabling the brain to unlock and access new perspectives on existing knowledge by the use of the imagination

- Examining 'aha moments', distraction, sleep and dreams in historical breakthroughs and exploring methods to replicate some techniques

Our workshops do NOT promote a particular innovation or creativity model. Rather, they are aimed at complimenting your existing approaches and providing team members with a radically enhanced appreciation of their biological brains' remarkable ability to process and combine information, knowledge in new ways. 

These really are skills for life and can be used in pretty much any domain, from scientific research to social change and from media to policy development.

Workshops can last from a few hours to a few days, depending on your requirements.

Do not hesitate to contact us to explore how we can work together.

SHAPE YOUR FUTURE

While the future is a source of excitement and adventure for some, for far too many there is a sense of disillusionment, frustration and helplessness. We can clearly see this at the societal level as our political systems and institutions face populist challenges, not to mention the existential challenges of our time such as climate change and Artificial Intelligence. This phenomenon can also be seen in many work places, with surveys suggesting increasing levels of disengagement and stress, as well as an almost constant eye on alternative employment or career opportunities. And then, of course, comes the personal level with high levels of anxiety, mental health challenges, etc.

These issues are highly complex, with deep societal, political and economic roots. Yet a central component of being able to adapt to and thrive in the face of change is the sense of agency. This (sense of) agency is not something objective, but rather a subjective, felt experience that one has or does not have a degree of control over one's destiny. The power to make choices. 

And as we try to shape the future, having a sense of agency is probably one of the most important things both individually and collectively. Otherwise, there's not much point in getting out of bed in the morning.

A sense of agency cannot be directly taught, as it needs to be discovered and experienced. Nevertheless, by understanding how our brains work (our sense of agency comes from our brain, of course!), we can take important, and potentially transformatory, steps to discover our power of action. Among the approaches we take are:

- Understanding the fundamental relationship between movement and action from an evolutionary point of view

- Utilising protocols to combine complex higher level cognitive goals with action within our nervous system

- Going beyond positive thinking to use our imagination to change our physical and psychological state 

- Simple tools to help change our narrative as to what we believe we are capable of

In many ways, all of the topics that we cover in all of the different workshops are ultimately about developing the sense of agency. That is, it is a central underlying theme regardless of whether it is made explicit. Developing a sense of agency really is a central issue for us as individuals and as organisations and societies.  

These really are skills for life and can be used in pretty much any domain, from scientific research to social change and from media to policy development.

Workshops can last from a few hours to a few days, depending on your requirements.

Do not hesitate to contact us to explore how we can work together.

Leading Change

To state that being able to manage change is an important skill for the future, does not quite capture it! Indeed, from the technological to the environmental, from the economic to the political and from the social to the cultural, the challenge is rather to identify things which are likely to stay stable.

Whether for individuals seeking to adapt to new ways of working, companies trying to figure out what developments such as AI (AI is not the only disruptive thing!) mean to their business and socially-focused organisations seek to re-orientate themselves to remain relevant, change is coming. Ready or not. 

Key to being able to lead and anticipate change, is Cognitive Flexibility. Essentially, to have a range of flexible ways of thinking and responding to situations rather than relying solely on ingrained habits and skills which may, or may not, be relevant for addressing the issues of the future. 

Without widespread Cognitive Flexibility - the ability to literally think differently - organisational change initiatives will fail, the ability to imagine the future will be stuck in the past and people and organisations (and countries?) will loose their competitiveness. 

We do not aim to introduce a particular change management model, since the choice of the specific model is essentially a secondary consideration if there is not the genuine readiness and openness to change. Rather, based on modern principles and understanding from cognitive neuroscience, we seek to introduce people to the underlying way that our brains deal with the past, present and future.

In particular we focus on:

- Exploring how our brains are essentially 'prediction machines' (this is a central - or perhaps THE - central idea in modern neuroscience)

- How and why our evolutionary brains make narratives about the past, present and future, which are more adaptive (useful) than accurate

- Introduce a wide-range of tools and techniques to help people open up new ways of perceiving and understanding their experiences and those of others (most of these are simple "anytime/ anyplace" tools, though some are more complex)

The tools and techniques are entirely adaptable and transferable across a whole range of issues, ranging from organisational change, strategic planning, future scenarios and, indeed, personal development

If you would like to find out more about our approach and explore how we might help you, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Focused Performance

People, companies and organisations ignore stress and anxiety at their peril, as personal, organisational and societal costs are immense. While these might be considered manageable in the short-term, treating them as a form of 'inevitable collateral damage' in the high pressured pursuit of goals is short-sighted, unsustainable and counter-productive. It is also unnecessary.

While the stresses associated with modern-day life are not going to disappear, the good news is that there are simple, practical tools and techniques that people can use which make a real difference in their lives. These can have real, tangible benefits for both the well-being of individuals and the productivity of the companies and organisations in which they work.

A 5-minute Google search will provide 60+ ways of managing your stress from chewing gum, to practicing yoga or managing your inbox more effectively. And there are, indeed, many critical approaches to reducing stress including adequate sleep, diet and exercise. 

This workshop, however, will focus on the physiological and cognitive drivers of stress (including the non-conscious/ automatic ones), as these are key to developing long term resilience and change. We focus on "getting-under-the-hood" to help people understand the mechanisms between stress and anxiety and how these can be modified. 

This includes:

- Understanding the different aspects of stress and how it works

- Instant stress reduction techniques ('coming down')

- Identifying and changing the meaning of stress triggers

- Accessing positive, resourceful and focused states

- Breaking out of anxiety loops

The aim is that participants will gain insights (‘light-bulb moments’) which change their perspective and thinking about stress and anxiety. Most importantly of all, by the end of the workshop, participants will be clear that they are able to influence their stress response and that it is not simply beyond their control.

Important: At no point in the workshop are participants requested to share any personal information or be put in an uncomfortable position. While informative and engaging, the workshop is relaxed and enjoyable!